Phryne Fisher meets Precious Ramotswe

I inhabit a world where I might be killed by a snake released in my bedroom, stabbed while dancing, eaten by a crocodile, shot in a drive-by, or pulled from a train and hung from a water tower. Yes, I do love mysteries, but it would be easy to become paranoid. Lately I have immersed myself in two vastly different mystery series.

Not too long ago, my family and I attended Woodford Folk Festival (I wrote about it here). We had torrential, terrible rains, and camping was an exercise in endurance. But our nights were made more tolerable by curling up, each on his or her camp bed, with a book light and a good book. At one point our tent collapsed, breaking poles and wrecking the camp. All we were really worried about was the borrowed camping gear and the bag of Christmas present books, not necessarily in that order.

When gum-boot deep in mud, my distraction of choice was the Phryne Fisher series by Australian Kerry Greenwood. Surrounded by smelly muck, I escaped to the glamorous 1920's where Phryne (pronounced Fry-knee) has more money than she knows how to spend, luxuriates in expensive cosmetics, wears bespoke clothes, and solves mysteries while shocking society. She is a ballsy, unconventional woman with an amazing intellect who began her life distressingly poor, and I want to be her (after she got rich). The book covers are beautiful, each showing Phryne in one of the amazing outfits from the book. I even saved one illustration as my phone's wallpaper (I am truly a book tragic).



After purchasing all the books I can find from the series (there are 17, I think, and I have seven so far) I went to the library in search of another lady detective. And Mma Ramotswe came to mind. Alexander McCall Smith's creation is 'Botswana's only--and finest--female private detective.' She is, in contrast to Phryne, a woman of tradition and national pride with a strong moral compass. Mma Ramotswe's life has a quiet rhythm, and much of her detecting is done chatting politely to people over a cup of bush tea. There's a film version, too.



One of my friends tried to read Smith's series and found it boring. I love the gentle pace and evocative language. McCall writes just as I imagine Mma would speak, and I feel like I've already met Botswana's lady detective.

The two lady sleuths couldn't be more different. Phryne screams through Melbourne in a demonic Hispano-Suiza while Mma tootles across Botswana in her tiny white van, lovingly maintained by her fiance Mr J.L.B. Matekoni. One character is free with her favours, slim with hip bones jutting from milky white skin. The other is 'traditionally built' and honoured when someone calls her fat.

Phryne makes me want to take better care of myself while Mma makes me want to take better care of everyone else. Phryne makes me want more stuff and Mma teaches me that I don't need any more stuff.

They are both avaliable on Kindle (Phryne is here and Mma Ramotswe is here.) if you are trying to save bookshelf space.

However, if, like me, you are reading the traditional, paper versions, you'll need bookmarks. For Phryne I chose a Valentino exhibit bookmark with a vintage dress that Julia Roberts wore. For Mma Ramotwse I chose Emus by Aboriginal artist Yirra-Kurl.


If you are looking to escape from your everyday life (and is that not why we read?), then I can recommend either Phryne or Mma Ramotswe. They are vastly different from one another, but both wonderful detectives.

However, after reading of these ladies' escapes you might start looking over your shoulder.

Storytime: There's a Bird on Your Head! by Mo Willems

Hey, Y'all! This is my first official post for the new challenge - picture books. I am super excited, because I read to my little ones so much, yet I hate to keep BLATHERING on about it, you know?

But, now, you HAVE to read my blathering, AND you have to like it. See? It's a Win - sorta Win situation.

Now. On to the review.


My review first. Now, I am speaking as a mom of three, count'em (I have to!), three squirmy wormies! And, although you may feel as though I am a regular June Cleaver (I give off that impression), I actually get rather bored reading some children's books. I know! Gasp! The horror!

So, my perspective is one of a young(ish) mother who will be reading said story about 20 times during the following week. How disgusted will I be with it? THAT, ladies and germs, IS the question!

This book, by Mo Willems, is absolutely. adorable. Aaaand (Yes, there is an "and"!) aaand...FUNNY!

I could totally read this one 20 times this week! 

The pictures are very simple- actually the same basic picture as the cover. I like that because you see the expressions on Piggie's and Elephant's face, and the colors are muted. So there is not a lot to distract from the words.

And the words are very easy to read - the story is a conversation between Piggie and Elephant and beginning readers can read the high frequency words that they will be familiar with (the, bird, on, etc), but there is enough repetition for them to grasp new harder words and memorize them (somewhere, head, etc).

This book will be entertaining for older readers, as well, but it will not be challenging. This is really a beginner's level book.

All of the books in this series (Piggie and Elephant) are similarly written, and I give them a "4 Whews!" and "2 1/2 Snickers (as in laughs, not the candy...although that could work too..)". I may just buy this book and a few more in the series.

 

Nico's interview. (Nico is six, and "motivationally challenged" - that means...uhh..lazy. So he HATES to actually read - he wants me to do it. He pretends, yes, pretends to sound out the words so that I will give in and just read the dang word. He works harder at not working than actually working!)

Me: Nico, did you like this book?

Nico: Uh-huh. Can I go?

Me: No.What did you like about it?

Nico: I don't know. Are we finished?

Me: Not yet. COME BACK HERE! Did. you. like. the. story.

Nico: Yeah. It was funny. Maaaamaaaa, can I go NOW?

Me: Jus' a sec. Did you like to read the words?
Nico: No. Well, yeah, but I just don't know how to read all those books. Can I go?
Me: *sigh* NO! Now. What was your favorite part?
Nico: Elephant said "Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh." And it was funny. He thinks there was a bird on his head!
Me: NICO! COME. HERE! Do you think other kids would like this book?
Nico: (Grinning) Yeah. It was funny. Now can I go?

I must say, I let him go. Through the entire interview, he was hopping up and down. How would Oprah or Barbara Wawa have handled it? Could they have made him cry? Or would they have started to cry?


Anyway, folks. There you have it. It was funny. And not torturous to read the words. He read it with me once, once by himself, and once with his brother and sister each. Not bad, boy-who-doesn't-like-to-read, not bad at all!



Please visit the Read to Me Picture Book Challenge's February linky party   hosted by There's A Book for more terrific picture books!

The Sneaky Chef

 

I reordered this book through Amazon the other day. The first one was destroyed in a stomach virus related incident. Let us move on, shall we?

I was eager to get back into the "eating right" thing because we have been hit hard by a barrage of colds, flus, coughs, and ear and throat infections. So the easiest thing to do, after washing our hands until they are raw, is to eat right. Because of so much going on, I admit, I have been slack. We are not big junk food eaters, but we still weren't eating optimally.

I'd been pureeing cauliflower and adding it to their mac n cheese. Two eat it, one does not. The two that eat it are the two I worry the most about. MUAHAAHAAHAAHAA (evil laugh).

But I needed to take it up a notch because they wouldn't eat mac n cheese every day, plus cauliflower is not the only veggie needed. I decided to make the Choc-ful Donuts/Choc-ful Cupcakes.

Purple Puree. Mmmm!

The ingredients that boost these are spinach, blueberries, wheat germ, and whole wheat flour.

Donuts in front, cupcakes in back. Chocolaty!

Nico loves donuts, Lucas loves cupcakes, and Nina loves chocolate. Got all the bases covered!

Berry icing - made with berry juice, powdered milk and sugar.

The verdict? The kids loved them. All is good in the Land of Insanity.

What I like about this book is that it is fairly easy to use and fairly honest about what our expectations should be regarding children and their tastes. Lapine suggests making purees of the veggies used in her recipes and freezing them. This will help a lot down the line as you want to make something quickly or try something new, and it's easier to hide it from the kids!

The recipes are old favorites. I've tried the mac n cheese, the pizza, the cupcakes, and the quesadillas. Not bad. Personally, I don't like some of the flavors, but my kids didn't seem to notice anything different, and that's the main thing, right?

I prefer this book to Deceptively Delicious, which is very similar in ideas. As I mentioned, Lapine is more realistic with regard to children. I felt like I was being lectured by Jessica Seinfeld and felt a bit of "holier than thou" attitude in her book. Also some of Seinfeld's recipes seemed a bit complicated for my busy schedule and my kids' tastes. I made the chicken nuggets and they didn't go over well. (I will be trying them again - sometimes kids just decide to be finicky).

I am a big believer in picking your battles. Fighting over veggies and having your kids force themselves to gag is not my idea of a fun evening together (Nico even made himself vomit when he had to eat a quarter of an inch of a green bean. Good times.)

Anyway, this book is a great peacemaker in our family. And keeps my level of guilt down.

How to make the most of your 60 cent stamp

I know Mrs BG would have been a letter writer. Can you just imagine finding her penmanship on an envelope in your letterbox at the end of your driveway with flowers nodding their heads in the afternoon sunshine? It's another era, and personally I have done nothing to wind back time.

My family is not known for its letter writers. My mother can fill an enormous box with treasures and ship it off without blinking an eye, but I cannot tell you the last time we exchanged hand written communication. My brothers have each sent me a letter, I think…maybe.

On the other hand, my paternal grandmother, despite having I-don't-even-know-how-many grandchildren sent me a beautiful letter each birthday. And my step mother's cards seem to arrive magically on the precise day required. I don't know how people do that.

So, it was a shock to marry into a family of inveterate letter and post card writers. My dear mother in law pops us a note in the mail every few weeks. Her handwriting is virtually illegible, but she'll also send along something of interest, something we've left at her house or something someone wants to give us. But her sister, Aunty Pat, is a legendary letter sender.

This last missive just had to be documented and shared. So here is what she sent;



Here is the actual post card, the central communication. But it must not have fit the envelope because it had to be trimmed. Not much content has been lost.

Here is a card for my mother. It also was trimmed. Aunty Pat has enclosed it because she says, 'mail is flowing back and forth' between me and my mum. And she assumes I will just pop this in the next one I send off. I haven't posted my mother anything in months and months… She's been great with the packages lately, though…

Here is a Dolce and Gabbana perfume sample card. It has no writing on it, but smells nice.

Here is a Chloe perfume card, with writing.

Here is a page from her newspaper about poor Michael Douglas. He looks really unwell.

This is an article about a man who was washing his car and heard two male koalas fighting. He went to have a look, came back and found a female inside his car. She has a baby in her pouch and was released in the bush.

This is a riddle. Not written on a perfume card. Anyone know the answer?

Here is a magazine article about Halloween. In Australia it's not really celebrated, so this is particularly interesting.

And finally, the back of the envelope is not just to enclose the letter. It is for last-minute thoughts or instructions. Neither she nor her sister has ever sent us an envelope with only the two addresses on it.

As you can see, my dear Aunty wrings every cent of value out of that stamp. She even asks us to pass it on to her sister.

The two sisters (my MIL and Aunty) are very similar. Getting a letter from them is like sitting at their kitchen table. You look at their photos and thumb through that little stack of paper they have by the napkins. It is not quite the same as zapping off an email or text.

So, I encourage, no, challenge you, dear readers, to send a card or letter to someone this week. Do it for Mrs BG, do it for my dear Aunty Pat. It's hard, I know, for some of us digital folk. Sixty cents is a significant amount of coin, and putting together a letter, bits and pieces, envelope, stamp and address is time-consuming. But it is worth it.

Many a Pickle Makes a Mickle, or Show a Clean Set of Teeth

Drunk monkeys, a holy man that's not, and a confused ice cream boy.
I just reread a very funny, bizarre, but sweet story about a family in India.

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai is one of my favorite reads. It's been around awhile. This is the author's first novel, and it's a "whimsical" first novel!

                                                          
Sampah is a young man whose life is not going as it should. Fed up, he runs away to a guava orchard, climbs a tree, and refuses to come down. Very quickly he becomes the town's sage.


What makes this story so fantastic is that the absurdity of the situation is somehow familiar.

The author expresses so many insights into people, the private thoughts that we have and pretend to not.

The family of Sampah are delightfully odd - selfish and selfless, miserable and happy, all rolled into one - from his father whose love for his family drives him to greediness, to his angry, aggressive, yet sympathetic sister.

Don't these juxtapositions sound like real people?

The townspeople are equally enjoyable to read about, and the description of the countryside- the smells, the colors, and the foods - really make you want to visit this guava orchard, and perhaps stay there with Sampah.

Pick this up for a nice relaxing read, or to delve deepaahhh and deepaahhh into your soul. I'm not a deeeeep person, so I just enjoyed the hilarity of it all. Best reading, bookworms!